Moments of Quiet Truth

"For He wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal." Job 5:18 Meditating on pain in the lives of those I love. God Himself can be the agent afflicting the pain on the life of those I love. He takes responsibility for it and says it comes from Him. How do I respond to this revelation of God? I need to sit with this reality but not stop there. He is also the agent of healing. He also sits with those who are in deep pain. He doesn't rush their healing. He doesn't grow impatient with them as they seek to navigate life during the process of restoration. He puts the broken back together again and He does it in a way the is personally detailed. He binds up wounds to make the wounded look more like Jesus at the end of the process than they were at the beginning. Are we patient with the hurting? Are we compassionate? "Compassion" and "sympathy" both come from words that mean to suffer with. Do we step into the pain of others (even strangers) a...

 I'm reading today in Philippains 4 and the realization struck me that I might have misinterpreted what Paul was driving at in verse 13. The thing that he is able "to do" [English translation of the Greek "to have power to be able to"] is face whatever circumstance God gives Him with contentment. So often, we take this verse out of its context and apply it to whatever we're facing. That is not to say that God does not give us the grace to do what He calls us to do (spoken of in other parts of Scripture), but the immediate context of this verse is trust and contentment. Do I know how to be content and trust God, am I content and do I trust God when: I'm brought low - brought to a place of need and disappointment/failure, I abound - when I'm successful and do things well, when I have everything I need or face the privation of my daily needs? (see Romans 8:35-36) How does one learn this lesson? Does the context give us a clue? I think it does. ...

      A basic question to ask when you come to a particular passage of Scripture, and one that will eliminate much misunderstanding, mishandling, and misapplication of said text, is, "What kind of literature am I reading?" When we have a basic grasp of the type of literature, we can eliminate, to a great degree, confusion concerning the purpose for which the text was written. The Bible is filled with various types or genres of literature and each has a specific purpose and message to communicate. There is historical narrative (think most of the Old Testament). There is prophetic literature (foretelling of future events), wisdom literature (think Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes), and there are personal letters (think of much of Paul and Peter's letters to the churches in the New Testament). Each type of literature serves a specific purpose and should be read with that purpose in mind. We do this in daily life. We, for example, don't read a cookbook looking for the same ...

      Last time, we looked at some questions to ask when we looked at a text, in order to understand the meaning of the text. This time we'll be looking specifically for the "who" and the "what" of each of the members of the Godhead in a passage in order to understand who They are and what They do better.      For this lesson, we're going to go to Ephesians 1. There is SOOOO much in this chapter and most of it (vv. 3-14?) is one long, run-on sentence in Greek. We're going to focus in on the first 14 verses of chapter 1 and see what we can find out about this amazing God!       To set the stage, Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus, around 60-62 AD. You can read of his time there in the book of Acts, chapters 18:18-21 (Paul's second missionary journey) then in chapter 19 (his third missionary journey). The city of Ephesus was filled with idolatry, sexual immorality, and witchcraft. The epistle teaches us how to live out the gospel and...

      In our last lesson, we talked about how to find key ideas by looking at the repeating words in a passage. This allows you to have a decent idea about the main idea of a passage at a glance (providing you mark the repeating words/phrases in the text). In this lesson, we will begin to ask the 5 "w's" and 1 "h" question (who, what, when, where, why, and how) to determine the key information of a text. We'll use the same text we did last time and dive in. Materials you will need: 1. Holy Spirit 2. Prayer 3. A copy of the text 4. A place to make notes      As always begin your time in the Word asking the Spirit for His help. It would also be a good idea to read the text several times before you begin to tackle the questions.  1 Corinthians 12:1-14 (NASB) " 1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. 2  You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led. 3  Therefor...

      Now that we have laid the foundation for understanding how to find the meaning of words, let's apply that knowledge so as to learn the meaning of a passage. One thing my father taught me to do is to mark up a text. Some do not wish to mark up their Bibles, so I would suggest printing out a copy of that passage that they can mark up. My dad and I both enjoy using color but pen or pencil work just as well. I would recommend either mechanical pencils, as they have a finer point, or Micron artist pens, as you can get them with very fine points as well. These pens work especially well when you don't have very large margins. The benefit to marking up the text in your copy of the Scriptures is that you have all of your notes right there, at a glance. You won't have to go searching for loose pieces of paper or that particular journal, should you ever want to revisit what you learned at a later point in time. The downside is, depending on how much you mark up the text, the w...

      My dad's quote will never get old to me. "You will never know what the Bible means until you know what it says." Understanding it is foundational to know how to approach studying the Bible. You have to know what it actually says!!! I know I keep harping on this but it is sooo crucial! I want us to be grounded in the Word and more loyal to it than to any Bible teacher of any age. I want us to be so loyal to it that we are willing to dismiss and let go of teaching that does not conform to the words in its pages. Now, no preacher will get it right 100% of the time and we shouldn't flush the entirety of their teaching because we find a mistake here or there. If they, generally speaking, are clear, solid, and Biblically grounded teachers who preach the Word of God and hold it up over every other man's (including their own) opinion, then they will be worth listening to. Fill your minds with Biblical truth and grow in your understanding of how to seek it out and fi...